Synopsis

Dreaming of a magical world every night, the young Toramizu Ginta yearns to be able to go there. With only his friend Koyuki believing in his dreams, Ginta remains positive despite the slander he receives from others over his dreams. But his wishes are answered, as one day a large door appears in front of Ginta, summoning him to the land of MAR Heaven. In this land, the weapons known as ARMS exist. While initially Ginta greatly enjoyed the discovery of this magical world, he soon learns of the terrible wars that have once plagued MAR Heaven and the upcoming war that may soon appear.

Okay so I have been a fan of this anime since a long time and since I think that the anime is underrated i am doing this review so Enjoy :)

10/10 STORY: Okay so I guess the plot isn't that original. You know the whole "going into another world to fight evil and save the world" but it isn't your typical story too since it does have some detailes that just make you go "wow i didn't see that coming for sure"

10/10 ART: I usually really like it when in an Anime the art is clean and in really huigh quality while the
more old animations aren't exactly my cup of tea. With that said ,the art of MAR isn't anything new It's basicly your typical anime art but it still has that effect on the viewer , it just gets you really into the story

9/10 SOUND: I liked the openings and Endings as well as the voice actors that were chosen , the music through out some of the battles or some of the sad/happy scence is really fiting too.

10/10 CHARACTERS: Okay now this is where MAR really shines in my point of view. And now if you've watched the anime you're gonna say "what these are your typical shounen characters and they were way to predictable' However i really liked them and to prove that i am going into detail with some of the main characters that i like Warning contains some spoilers :

(he is not my favorite but he is the main hero so i have to give a little info about him too)
Ginta:
Okay so Ginta is the main character.The hero of the story. He is your averrage kid that goes to a school in the normal world like everybody else/ Really, nothing interesting right ? WRONG. Although he may seem stupid and clumsy he is actually has quite the outstanding personality.Sure, he's cheerfull and happy and he's the good guy that defeats the evil guys, but he is also a dreamer. He dreams about this other magical kingdom that is usually beautifull and peacefull. but now Great evil is threatning it.He has had that dreem for over 102 times [ like the amount of episodes] and even though everybody says that it doesn't mean anything he still believes that he is some sort of chosen one and he wants to go to that world. Well my firend ,a wish come true . it is !And so he goes of to the world Of MAR Heaven and that's when his journey begins.

Dorothy:
She is the first person that Ginta meets in MAR Heaven. She's a witch and a really powerfull one. In their world, people fight with things called ARM. There are Guardian Arm, Nature Arm, Weapon Arm and so on... These are basicly guardians , weapons and element controling magic items that are usually in the form of a bracelet a necklace, rings, chains, and such. These things are ,as you can guess, soleless and most of them can't talk. But The One That Ginta finds is actually a living, talking moving arm with an atitude.Dprothy's goal is to get as many arms as she can because she has to defeat her sister Dianna that has betrayed their country and the law there is that if a sertain person is considered a traitor a member of his own family has to defeat and kill him.She is usually cheerfull and happy and she has has developed a crush on Ginta but she also has a really dark side. That of a strong and mighty witch. She doesn't hesitate to kill her oponents in batle but she promised Ginta that she son't kill anymore people in their fights.

Nanashi:
"Nanashi" means Nameless as ina person without a name. Ironic isn't it ? He is the leader of Luberia , a guid of thiefs. He is very skilled in using arm and his physical streingth is huge too. He also loves women and in a fight with a lady he always pretends to be injured or hurt ,when he wins, so that the girl can still keep some of her pride . Although this often makes him look like an idiot, he is actually really serios sometimes. His goal is to find one of the bad guys,named Petta, and kill him for killing a huge number of his comrads ,years ago. Petta ,however, is one of the strongest arm users in the land but that doesn't stop Nanashi from seaking him out and chalanging him to a fight.

So as you can see even though the main characters are a group of strong arm users that are all fighting against the same enemy,each of them has their own different goal and that is one fo the many things that is unique about them !

10/10 ENJOYMENT:
I don't know about what other people thought after watching MAR but i really enjoied it sure it had some of it's minuses but it was a really good anime worth the time .So i recomend this if you're a person who enjoies great fights [ the fighting is actually done in matches on 1 on 1 fighting.]

10/10 OVERALL:
I think every one of us should just make a stop sometimes and just watch something that is a little cliche but still good to see.So everyone should stop for a moment , take a breather from the ecchi,horror,blood-filled series , and give MAR a try and remember that .. in this world full of evil ,misery and hurt there is still hope as long as you believe in it yourself.:)

The story revolves around a young boy named Ginta. He has these weird dreams every night he sleeps where he's in this magical world filled with weird people and creatures. One day at school, a portal opens and pretty much the journey begins clear and cut like that.

Sounds stupid right? Think again because it isn't. One day at school, a weird portal opens and so Ginta decides to go inside the portal upon having a choice by some weird monster that rules over the portal. From there, Ginta meets, as in his dreams, weird creatures and
people of all kinds. It sounds very cliche because we've seen these "GO TO ANOTHER WORLD" Anime at least 200 times, but MAR Heaven to me got it right. It doesn't feel forced at all it feels magical. Ginta just wanted to get away from his boring life.

The Openings for MAR is just AMAZING. The 1st opening feels so magical and nostalgic. You will NEVER stop humming it on occasions. It takes you back to a time when you were young and every Anime felt magical.

The story goes at a good pace and he meets various people and this big spiked ball who can actually talk but I won't spoil anything for who it actually is. It has some great fights and emotional scenes as well but you can still have a good time with the adventure that Ginta goes through. Each character has a diverse personality as well so you won't get bored with the characters. As it goes on it does get serious.

If you're into shounen you'll love it as well as Action adventure fans.

It reminds me of Yu-Gi-Oh! and Shaman King - shows I watched when I was about 13 and really enjoyed, back then I didn't even know what anime is and I'm no sure I was even aware of the shows' origin, but I still enjoyed them.

I picked MAR for the sole reason to relive that excitement and since it had 102 episodes I expected to have tons of fun with it, alas, the reality was different.

The show started well, the premise of the main character being transported to a fantasy world he has longed for was interesting. The first few episodes, where he still figures
out what goes on and characters are being introduced were the more interesting ones for me.

After that, the majority of the show is about a tournament, but that's where I started skipping just to get through and say I've finished it.

The story on paper sounds fun, but in reality it's really mediocre and poorly executed, very predictable and uninteresting.
The art style is OK, I can't say ti was bad, but it wasn't anything remarkable either, many characters shared similar features, like color palettes and such.
I think the show, like other long running ones suffers from recycled sounds to the point where it becomes noticeable, not a deal breaker, but just one more negative to the list.
The characters were extremely poor developed and suffered from "Anime Humor Syndrome" - a grave disease where one would fall in the same absurd situation over and over and react the exact same way without ever noticing it, the worst part of this disease is that it spreads in the air and it's very infectious, by the end of the episode, every other character would have contracted it.
After passing the 41st episode, I found it really hard to enjoy it and decided to fastforward just so I can say I've finished it and not dropped it, I really wanted to see the end without losing track of events.

Overall I both regret wasting my time with it and I'm also glad I know what is it about so I won't have to bother with it again. On a positive note, I think that if I was 13 again I might've enjoyed it A LOT more.

Now before i get started this anime was base on the story and art of Nobuyuki Abzai and was licensed by Viz media and with that in mind i throughly enjoyed this anime it was the first one i watched and even though only (i think) 52...maybe 53 of the episodes are dubbed i did watch untill the end.

-ARTWORK- If you know that mar was created by the same person as 'flame of recca" then you may or may not be disappointed with the change of style; i actually liked the change -it's almost chibi but it keeps the same realistic side as flame
of recca - i also enjoyed the mix of cgi; such as babbo's transformations.

-STORY- Now i have watched quite a few anime with people being sent in to other worlds but this one does have a certain charm to it- while saying that it can be a little predictable at times.

-SOUND (music and dub)- Now i'am no way a purist; yes i admit, when i have a choice i will always chose dub and because of that i can't really say on how well or bad it was subbed but i did enjoy the dub; it was a little old fashioned in a way that it reminded me of all those anime characters in the 90's with the real high pinched voices (not saying there not still dubbing like that because they are) so it made it have an older feel which may or may not be you cup of tea.

-CHARACTER- What can i say? spiky hair, big boobs and lots of love. the characters are well drawn - typical for an anime but very colour and fun.

-ENJOYMENT- Now i got real enjoyment out of this for whatever reason, it's pretty simple minded just like Ginta; if your watching this because your a fan of the manga i should warn you that the beginning follows pretty close but around the time the dub ends so does the closeness.
-OVERALL- i enjoyed it beginning to end it can make you laugh, think and it can be depressing but a great anime all the same i recommend it.